$6 Million Improved Passenger Transport Services

Regional councils nationwide
have been quick to take advantage of the new patronage
funding scheme with $2.05 million already approved to new
and improved services with $6.46 million approved over three
yearsTransport Minister Mark Gosche said today.

Five
months after the introduction of a Government-led initiative
to encourage greater use of public transport, regional
councils around the country are taking advantage of the
benefits.

Mr Gosche said the amount invested will increase
as new applications are received.

“This Government has a
strong commitment to public transport. Our objective is to
encourage additional passenger transport services, at times
and places where these will provide maximum benefits for all
transport users."

Under Transfund’s Patronage Funding
Scheme, the more passengers carried in a region, the greater
the funding from Transfund. A ‘Kick-Start’ initiative was
also introduced to help regional councils establish, as
quickly as possible, new services that will help grow
patronage.

Regional councils need to join the Scheme in
order to take advantage of the benefits. At this stage
Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, Otago and Horizons.mw
(Manawatu) have joined up. Together these districts
represent more than 90 percent of Transfund’s total
investment in passenger transport services.

“This switch
to focusing on passengers carried, rather than the transport
service itself, represents a major turnaround in the way
passenger transport has been funded,” says Mr Gosche.

“The scheme has provided regional councils with much
greater incentive and flexibility to design passenger
transport services that best suit their regions and meet
user needs. Recently released figures shows this approach is
working well, with significantly higher levels of patronage.

“Canterbury Regional Council was one of the first to take
up this special funding, which it used to complete its very
successful Orbiter bus service. In Christchurch bus
patronage for January this year was up 17 percent on the
same month last year, the biggest monthly growth on record.
Over 100,000 more bus trips were made. The Orbiter service
was a major component of this success. It is now the city’s
biggest bus route, accounting for more than 10 percent of
all Christchurch bus trips.”

Increased frequencies, better
timetabling information, simpler fare structures and more
comfortable buses are making it more convenient for people
to travel by public transport.

“This is having some very
real spin-offs for regional councils also,” said Mr Gosche.
“As a result of our initiative, many will actually be able
to recover their share of service or capital start up costs
through increases in patronage funding. These are increases
that will occur as services become more attractive to
passengers.”

Within participating regions, typical new
initiatives include improved or extended bus services, such
as additional peak time services, and improved or new
information displays or shelters. In Wellington, some
improvements to rail services have also been approved, and
at Massey University a free student bus service will be
introduced next year.

“Several initiatives, including an
electronic smart card ticketing service for one region, are
currently under evaluation. I am sure we will continue to
see many more enhancements to passenger transport services
emerging from these and future applications,” said Mr
Gosche.

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